It was just a passing remark that the chief scientist/soldier bad guy made to the general when he was about to demonstrate version XI (eleven, as someone referred to him above), the super version that combined several talents. The previous group--the X group--were draft # 10. Presumably there were groups IX, VIII, VII, VI, V, IV, III, II and I before that, all, I assume, eliminated when the next group was created. But I caught it (remark), as I'm always amused by how often people mix up Roman numerals and alphabet letters. And I, and I assume many, had always assumed the X in X-Men (or X-People, more accurately) had to do with something like Xcellent or Xtreme or just secret Project X type meaning.
We lived in England one year when our kids were young, and as it was the 50th anniversary of a lot of World War II stuff that year, and since the war was a "bigger" deal in England than in the States, it was striking how many TV shows, comic books, etc. were dealing with it. Literally comic books about little boy spies for the Resistance and stuff. Anyway, one day one of my kids was talking about what he'd been reading and called it World War eye-eye instead of WW 2, and I realized then that without a context of course he would read the comic as using letters not numbers.
Well, long answer to short question! :)

05-31-2009, 08:56 PM

Bearcata

Re: X-men: Wolverine

Quote:

Originally Posted by PWS;3476534;

It was just a passing remark that the chief scientist/soldier bad guy made to the general when he was about to demonstrate version XI (eleven, as someone referred to him above), the super version that combined several talents. The previous group--the X group--were draft # 10. Presumably there were groups IX, VIII, VII, VI, V, IV, III, II and I before that, all, I assume, eliminated when the next group was created. But I caught it (remark), as I'm always amused by how often people mix up Roman numerals and alphabet letters. And I, and I assume many, had always assumed the X in X-Men (or X-People, more accurately) had to do with something like Xcellent or Xtreme or just secret Project X type meaning.
We lived in England one year when our kids were young, and as it was the 50th anniversary of a lot of World War II stuff that year, and since the war was a "bigger" deal in England than in the States, it was striking how many TV shows, comic books, etc. were dealing with it. Literally comic books about little boy spies for the Resistance and stuff. Anyway, one day one of my kids was talking about what he'd been reading and called it World War eye-eye instead of WW 2, and I realized then that without a context of course he would read the comic as using letters not numbers.
Well, long answer to short question! :)

X refers to Wolverine being referred to as Weapon X not to why the X-men are called the X-men. The X-men were around for about 20 yrs in the comic books before Wolverine made his first appearance in Marvel comics.

05-31-2009, 09:51 PM

PWS

Re: X-men: Wolverine

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bearcata;3476822;

X refers to Wolverine being referred to as Weapon X not to why the X-men are called the X-men. The X-men were around for about 20 yrs in the comic books before Wolverine made his first appearance in Marvel comics.

Ah, good, an expert--I just assumed (and you know what they say about that!) that since I've only seen Wolverine in X-men movies he was an original. The X-men comics were after my comic reading days. :)